Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 484: The Monk.

’If that God is not interfering in anyone’s business, then why does that old man want me to provoke him?’

Ozul went silent as he began to ponder. Unless he had a better understanding of the situation, he wouldn’t be able to make sense of Old Gu’s actions.

"Are you still certain about your decisions?" He asked Ember.

"That... is a difficult question. Staying neutral wasn’t a choice," she heaved a sigh.

They were still left in the dark about the most important matters. After all, they weren’t sure of the reason why this war was waged in the first place.

"It wasn’t?" Ozul looked at her, confused.

Even in a war this massive in scale, the scattered Realms far away from these mature ones wouldn’t feel anything amiss. If someone like Ember really wanted to get away from everything and spend some 200 hundred years in a Broken Realm, no one would stop her.

Yet, she stayed and even picked a side as soon as she was presented with the choice.

It was true for him as well. Since he found such matters so complicated, he could’ve stepped back.

But he needed his answers and that mattered more to him than anything else.

Ember heard him but didn’t reply. Instead, she too leaned back on the chair, trying to calm her nerves in this calm before the eventual storm.

. . .

Soon, Rai and the trio were ready to leave, prompting Ozul to finally get up from his chair.

"The fact that you stayed committed to napping even while facing a Virtue," Rai commented, "Are you not afraid of death, or missing that emotion entirely?"

Ozul gave him a side glance. He tried, but couldn’t spare him any importance to respond.

If it was when he was still in the Broken World, he would have admitted to not having that emotion in the first place. However, things had changed as he grew stronger.

He had started to feel emotions foreign to him. But fear of death was something that eluded him still. The thought of eternal darkness was instead fancied.

Without wasting any time, they set off from the estate with Rai leading them.

The destination was a corner at the edge of the continent, far from the reach of the Sect or the Wilderness.

Beyond a certain point from the center of the continent, even kingdoms didn’t form. People lived in tribes over scattered areas.

Flying over the mountains, Blaze couldn’t help but ask, "Are you confident you could take him down?"

Smirking, Rai replied, "If push comes to shove, I would just sacrifice some of you to weaken him."

"..." The three of them watched his back with killing intent.

"Glaring won’t help you. You should pray to God he agrees to submit. Oh wait, God is the reason we’re doing this... Hahaha!"

Meanwhile, Ozul was hoping for the opposite. There would not be a better chance than this to absorb the body of Sage.

They crossed mountains, villages, forests, and then some more mountains.

As Transcendents, the trio did not need to sleep every day. As such, Rai saw no need to let them rest and they continued with their journey for the entire day. Only slowing down near the villages to shake off the uncomfortable silence.

"How long?"

Whenever Ozul asked this question, Rai would start to blabber and not stop for an hour. As such, he didn’t ask often. But by then, the constant running and flying over the jungles was already annoying him more than the chatter.

"Can you spot those peaks? Those are the last ones," Rai answered him briefly, pointing to the dry rocky mountains in the distance.

It took them more than a day to cross over the continent.

"No wonder the Sect and Wilderness didn’t bother to recruit this man," mumbled Zier. "What is he even doing in the middle of nowhere?"

"According to my reports, the old man secluded himself to step into the Empyrean Realm."

"And how long has it been?" Raven questioned.

"It has been more than a hundred years since there was last any concrete news of him."

Rai smiled faintly. If that man was really cultivating nonstop all these years, then fighting him head-on really wasn’t a sound action. Only he wasn’t the most sane man either.

"I just hope he is alive," Blaze expressed his opinion. If they couldn’t even find him, it would be a complete waste of this trip.

"He better be," Ozul added, his expressions darkening at the possibility of not finding the man at all.

Soon they arrived over those peaks and the edge of the continent finally made itself clear.

A thick forest stretched from the base of those mountains to the rocky formations after which, they could only see the deep blue water on the horizon.

"This is the border of the continent?" Ozul spoke, and a hint of disappointment flashed in his tone.

"What, you don’t like it?"

He didn’t answer him, but he had imagined the end of the continent to be really the end. He would have preferred if the edge just faded off into oblivion and beyond that point, there was nothing but emptiness.

Alas, it was the same as the Broken World. Nothing new.

"Now we just need to find that old man?" Zier didn’t like the idea of walking through that vast forest looking for only a single person.

Rai flashed him a confident grin again, "I will burn the entire forest if he doesn’t come out."

And so, they sped forward, making their way into the heart of the jungle.

Rai immediately slew any wild beast that they encountered during the entire journey. Ozul didn’t stop to absorb them as they provided him with little to no nourishment.

Before they could even search for the Sage, however, they sensed something rushing at them from the sides.

The trees swayed as three people appeared before the group.

In the lead was an old man with a long beard, and behind him stood women who looked to be in their late twenties. Judging from their features, they seemed to be related.

"I will give you the same warning I gave to your friends. Leave," the old man warned, his hands folded behind his back. Unlike him, the two women behind him blatantly showed their killing intent.

Ozul didn’t miss the slightly quickened breath of the old man.

All three were wearing rough clothes as if they had never seen civilization, so it was hard to identify the signs of any recent battle.

"Friends? I assure you, I have no friends. Hahaha..." Rai held his hands in the air.

"The way he said it. He thinks he is cool because he has no friends... Should we tell him that it’s actually kind of pathetic?" Zier nudged Raven and ’whispered.’

Rai’s eyes twitched in annoyance, but he kept his smile while looking straight into that old man’s eyes.

"You must be Jaka, the Monk?" Rai spoke with fake pleasantries.

That old man was without a doubt who they were looking for. If the two peak Transcendent women following him weren’t evidence enough, that old man’s aura, which easily overshadowed his, would convince anyone.

"Indeed I am, and I have marked this territory for myself and my disciples. I do not care if they were your friends or not. Get out, or your bones will be buried here just like them," Jaka threatened with seemingly no room for negotiation.

"Of course, we will leave. But first, we can have a conversation, at the very least?" Rai spread his arms in a non-threatening gesture.

Jaka, the old man, didn’t see any harm in entertaining a fellow Sage for a few minutes. He nodded his head but didn’t drop his guard.

"Those people you are talking about, who were they sent by?"

"The Sect," Jaka replied with a cautious tone. Still not believing that the group of Transcendents he had just killed wasn’t related to this group.

Not only Rai but even the trio grinned.

"That’s great! I love you already. Did you at least hear what they were here for?"

Jaka glared at him, guessing where the conversation was going, "They were here to recruit me. And they were adamant I had enough of it. So, you must be from the opposite faction to them."

"And you won’t come out of your seclusion, why?" Rai spoke like he was having a conversation with an old friend.

"I see no need for it! I am perfectly happy here, so go away!"

"It’s been more than a hundred years and you haven’t even taken half a step into the Empyrean Realm. How is it going to help if you remain here? There is no one to give you a good fight here. Are you a coward or something?"

Raven looked at Rai’s back with squinted eyes. ’So he knows exactly what to say.’

Jaka clenched his fists, ready to strike at him at a moment’s notice, "You’re saying you lot are enough to give me a challenge?"

Rai grinned confidently, "You might be surprised."

The two women behind Jaka unsheathed their swords.

Meanwhile, the three of them behind Rai were silently cursing him in their hearts.

’He isn’t alone as we thought! Fighting him now is akin to suicide!’

Rai had only recently stepped into the Sage Realm while that old man Jaka was in the upper stages. He also had two peak Transcendent disciples following him. They were enough to keep the four of them busy.

Unless Rai was confident he could defeat Jaka alone, starting a fight here was asking for death!

"What, are you scared?" Rai provoked Jaka as he watched the latter scrutinize their group.

’...’

If stares could kill, the trio would have already buried Rai’s body.